[ Being a County or State Administrator is fun and rewarding. If you have an interest in the history of Oklahoma and the genealogy of it's residents please consider it. If you think "there is no way I can do this" there are many people ready, willing and able to help you. It's not near as difficult as you might think. ]

History

By 1760 the Osage of Missouri had increased their range to include present Osage County. They surrendered their claim to the region in 1825 and 1839 and removed to a Kansas reservation. In 1835 the area was included in the "perpetual outlet west" guaranteed to the Cherokee Nation under the Treaty of New Echota.
During the Civil War, on December 26, 1861, just northwest of present Skiatook, pro-Union Creek and Seminole led by Opothleyahola engaged Confederate soldiers in the Battle of Chustenahlah. In 1870, under the Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866, the Osage began the process of purchasing approximately 1,570,059 acres in the Cherokee Outlet from the Cherokee Nation. Osage Agent Isaac T. Gibson established the Osage Agency at Deep Ford (present Pawhuska) on Bird Creek in 1872. The Osage Reservation boundary was finalized in 1875, when the Kaw, or Kansa, acquired approximately 100,000 acres in the reservation's northwest corner. The Kaw lands were included in Kay County at statehood.
The Osage Reservation was part of Oklahoma Territory under the Organic Act of 1890 and was made a semiautonomous district by the Enabling Act of 1906. Represented by delegates T. J. Leahy and James J. Quarles at the 1906 Constitutional Convention, it became Osage County, Oklahoma, at 1907 statehood.